Our Lord Jesus Christ never intended His followers to live the Christian life merely on their own strength. Yes, He calls us to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him, to unashamedly take our stand for Him, and share our faith with others. But He also calls us to influence a lost world and become to them light and salt—to shine out and make a difference as we seek to win others for Christ.
In one of the last sermons he preached before his retirement and recent death, Evangelist Billy Graham expressed His regret that “never have I seen the church so weak, and that grieves me; but what grieves me more is I’ve never seen the world so wicked.” It is my growing conviction that unless the church returns to Pentecostal power we will never see the Spirit-anointed prayer warriors required for the kind of spiritual awakening so desperately needed to prepare the church and the world for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
It is my concern that we spiritual leaders get back to the secret of the Christian’s power for living the Christian life—the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised that “when the Spirit comes upon you, you shall receive power!” Now it is true that when we are born again and receive Christ as Savior, we are given the Holy Spirit in that experience. He indwells us and will enable us for the life we are called to live. In so many of our evangelical churches we seem to be faithful in proclaiming the Gospel to win people to Christ but, unfortunately, we don’t always help the new Christian understand that they are to learn to relate faithfully to the Holy Spirit. For as they learn to walk in the Spirit they will discover more power as they obey.
Christians who rely on the Spirit for inspiration to pray, to understand the Scriptures, to resist temptation, to share their faith, and to find their gifts and callings for Christian service will also find their need for more and more power from the Holy Spirit. This is why the Bible commands us to “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). And the Greek rendering of this imperative is “keep on being filled with the Spirit.” The truth is, we will need repeated times of fresh fire and fresh faith, and we then call upon the Holy Spirit for fresh fillings of the Spirit.
Remember, Jesus Christ Himself is our example for living the Christian life in the power of the Holy Spirit. Of course, it is true that Jesus Christ came to earth as the Son of God to become the Son of Man. As God, He was eternal, and He was omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful) and omnipresent (every-where at once). But His incarnation meant that He gave up these attributes and came to earth to identify with our humanity. Even though He was born of a woman, he remained sinless, but He faced all of life even as we do—He had to be cared for as an infant, he would have to learn, he would face temptations, and he would grow weary and tired. Like all of us, there would be limits.
So, let me remind us of what Jesus did before He began His ministry here on earth. At 30 years of age Jesus came to John the Baptist, who was calling sinners to repentance and baptizing them in the Jordon River. Jesus insisted on being baptized, even though he never sinned. He needed to identify with sinners. So, after being baptized in the Jordon River, Jesus stood up and began praying. In that moment He was filled with the Holy Spirit in great measure! He knew that He would be tested as One who had come to save mankind. So before ever preaching a sermon, working miracles of casting out demons, healing the sick, or raising the dead, He was filled with the Holy Spirit.
And remember what happened after being filled with the Spirit: He entered into a prayer and fasting session lasting 40 days and 40 nights. Jesus knew He would be tested by the devil and He would need the power of the Holy Spirit to strengthen Him. Right away, Satan came at Him in his hunger, tempting Him to turn stones into bread out there in that desert where He had been fasting. Jesus answered the devil with a Scripture: “Man does not live by bread alone.” And He was the victor. Other temptations followed, and Jesus was empowered by the Spirit to pass them by resisting in the power of the Spirit and quoting Scripture to the evil one.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, that same power is available to us today if we will hunger and thirst and ask for more and more of the Holy Spirit. We need power to pray and power to live holy lives by resisting the temptation to be selfish, worldly, immoral, untruthful, hateful, and mean-spirited.
Dear reader, if you are not filled with the Holy Spirit, you should make it your number one passion. By being filled with the Spirit you can become one of our greatly needed prayer warriors, helping us intercede for the greatest revival ever known in the history of the church. In these last days, revival is desperately needed to prepare the church and the world for the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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